I've
seen the film on video and I
think that anyone who is
screening this is running the
risk of deliberately breaking
Australia's anti-racial
legislation.

Tuesday Friday 27 June 2003

Australian
Jews protest Irving film

AUSTRALIA'S Jewish
community on Friday protested plans by a
Melbourne festival to screen a film made
by British historian and Holocaust-denier
David Irving.

The Jewish Community Council of
Victoria state said it had asked the Equal
Opportunity Commission to challenge plans
by the Melbourne Underground Film Festival
(MUFF) to show Irving's "The
Search for Truth in History".

David
Irving has sent the Sydney
Morning Herald this reader's
letter:

I am
puzzled to see in the article ...
these words: "Irving has written
numerous accounts denying the
reality of the Holocaust -- Nazi
Germany's systematic slaughter of
some six million Jews between
1933 and 1945." In fact I have
not written a single book or
article about the Holocaust, as
my readers know.

According to the MUFF website, the film
is Irving's response to being repeatedly
denied a visa to enter Australia, partly
because of his 1992 conviction in Germany
for defaming the memory of the dead.

"We hope that the Equal Opportunity
Commission demonstrates leadership and
allows MUFF to demonstrate some good sense
in not proceeding," said Michael
Lipshutz, president of the Jewish
council.

If the commission fails to act,
Lipshutz told the Australian Associated
Press, the council will apply for a court
order to stop the festival from going
ahead with its planned screening of the
film on July 10 [2003].

"The issue is not one of freedom of
speech, the issue is one of racial
vilification," he said.

"All around the world it is now
recognised that Holocaust denial is
anti-Semitism."

The president of the Executive Council
of Australian Jewry, Jeremy Jones,
also called for legal action against the
film.

"I've seen the film on video and I
think that anyone who is screening this is
running the risk of deliberately breaking
Australia's anti-racial legislation," he
said.

Festival director Richard
Wolstencroft was unfazed by the
criticism.

"They don't believe in freedom of
speech for people like David Irving," he
said."We particularly believe in
protecting unpopular speech. I don't agree
with his beliefs, but I do believe he has
the right to hold them."

But he did apologise to the people who
lived through the Second World War and may
find the decision to screen "hurtful".

"We're standing up for an ideal that
stops society from returning to something
like Nazi Germany," he said.

Irving has written numerous accounts
denying the reality of the Holocaust --
Nazi Germany's systematic slaughter of
some six million Jews between 1933 and
1945.